The present invention relates generally to burst mode digital communications systems, and more specifically it relates to a technique for reducing the amount of information contained in the preamble of each burst transmission that is necessary for recovering carrier and clock timing at a receiving end of the system.
In a burst mode of digital transmission, a preamble is transmitted at the beginning of each burst transmission to convey information as to the carrier and symbol clock timing of a modulator to allow receiving stations to establish correct timing relationships with the carrier and symbol clock of the modulator. The preamble is made up of a carrier recovery field and a clock recovery field that follows. On receiving a preamble, the receiver's function is to first analyze the carrier recovery field to establish correct timing with the carrier of the modulator and then proceed to the clock recovery field to establish proper symbol clock timing. In addition, an automatic gain control signal is derived from the received signal after the clock recovery procedure is complete.
Because of the sequential operations, the time taken to process the preamble is substantial and hence the transmission efficiency of the current burst mode of digital communications system is low.